Hillary Clinton wins Missouri primary

Hillary Clinton has won the Missouri primary, the Associated Press concluded on Thursday, two days after voters went to the polls.

The race for two days had been too close-to-call, but Clinton ultimately prevailed over Bernie Sanders by less than 2,000 votes. Sanders said on Thursday that he would not request a recount. "I prefer to save the taxpayers of Missouri some money," he said.

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By winning Missouri, Clinton pulled off a clean sweep of the five states that voted on Tuesday. But the narrow victory will likely have little tangible impact — because of Democratic rules about proportional allocation, The Associated Press had estimated the two candidates would split most of the 71 pledged delegates at stake.

Clinton on Tuesday extended her already-strong lead in the delegate race, though Sanders pledged after the latest contests that he still sees a path to the nomination.

But it’s difficult to see how the Vermont senator will be able to make up the ground. With roughly 1,600 delegates secured, Clinton has almost double Sanders’ amount, according to POLITICO’s tracker, and is getting close to the 2,308 delegates needed to become the nominee.

Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs said on Thursday that the senator is now focused on the second half of the delegate race.

“He's looking forward to Arizona, Idaho and Utah next Tuesday and moving on to other important states including Wisconsin, New York and California,” Briggs said. “He's taking the contest all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.”